Family Farmers & Ranchers Donate 35,000 Pounds of Ham to Feeding South Dakota

By Lura Roti

Feeding others is the life's work of family farmers and ranchers. And caring for neighbors in need matters to the members of South Dakota's largest agriculture organization. For these reasons South Dakota Farmers Union donated 35,000 pounds of pork on October 17 to Feeding South Dakota.

"Farmers and ranchers and Feeding South Dakota have a lot in common - we all spend our days doing work that feeds people," explained Doug Sombke, a Brown County farmer and President of South Dakota Farmers Union. "This donation is the right thing for our organization to do, because right now a lot of our neighbors are struggling to feed their families. In fact, this harvest there are a lot of farmers struggling financially because the Trade War took away our soybean markets, so many of us are losing money this harvest"

The 35,000 pounds of ham could not come at a better time, explained Hailey Srtska, Vice President of Operations for Feeding South Dakota.

"Protein is in high demand for the guests we serve because it is at an all-time high in the grocery store and we do not have access to protein like we typically do because of federal commodity food cuts to our program," Srtska said. "And with the government shutdown we expect our lines of guests to grow."

Several thousand South Dakotans are among the federal employees who will not be receiving a paycheck during the shutdown.

Through Feeding South Dakota's extensive network of partnering food pantries, the ham donated by South Dakota Farmers Union will be distributed to rural communities across South Dakota.

"It means so much to our organization that Farmers Union made this donation," Srtska said. "To be able to add these hams to our menu and make this wonderful source of protein available to families across the state is huge right now."

To learn more about how South Dakota Farmers Union works to support family farmers, ranchers and rural communities, visit www.sdfu.org.